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Question!

The sentences:

We dress to impress, to confuse, and to deceive (if only ourselves). Whether we utilize the skills of a detective to blend into our surroundings or those of a pop star to stand out, there is generally a considerable gap between what we project in our appearance and the reality of our situation in life. It may be only when dressing for, say, a job interview or a first date that we are aware of our capacity for visual deceit but we are, in fact at it all the time.

Question#1: What does "if only ourselves" mean there in the sentence?

Question#2: What does "project " mean there? Is it almost the same as "show"? If so, is it possible to replace "in" with "by"? What exactly does the preposition "in" mean in this case? Is it almost semantically the same as "in" of "in English"?

Re: Question!

Originally Posted by Taka

The sentences:

We dress to impress, to confuse, and to deceive (if only ourselves). Whether we utilize the skills of a detective to blend into our surroundings or those of a pop star to stand out, there is generally a considerable gap between what we project in our appearance and the reality of our situation in life. It may be only when dressing for, say, a job interview or a first date that we are aware of our capacity for visual deceit but we are, in fact at it all the time.

Question#1: What does "if only ourselves" mean there in the sentence?

Question#2: What does "project " mean there? Is it almost the same as "show"? If so, is it possible to replace "in" with "by"? What exactly does the preposition "in" mean in this case? Is it almost semantically the same as "in" of "in English"?

Taka

1. "If only ourselves" goes with "deceive". It says that we dress to deceive (even if it is only ourselves we are deceiving). In other words, one doesn't have to be consciously trying to deceive another person.

2. Project means to "put out from ourselves to others", "to show or exhibit to others". I would not use "in" there. I would use "by". The "in" there is attempting to say "in choosing that appearance, we project", but it doesn't work for me.

Ah! I see. Encapsulation! That makes sense. I didn't come up with that idea. I thought it just indicated means and "by" instead of "in" was better, but now I like your idea of encapsulation and I think "in" works there.